Motherwell made it three league wins in a row with a 1-0 win against Dundee at Dens Park.
David Turnbull’s second half penalty was the difference between the two sides, and increases the gap from 10th placed Hamilton to 13 points.
Stephen Robinson named the same eleven from Wednesday night’s win over Hibernian to take on the Dee, with three academy products starting the game in Allan Campbell, Jake Hastie and goalscorer Turnbull.
And, in truth, it was an afternoon in which the Steelmen had to dig in deep.
It was Dundee, forced in to an early change when Jesse Curran made way for Roarie Deacon, who looked the side likeliest to open the scoring.
Gary Woods went close just after the half hour mark, but should have made more of his chance from the edge of the box, which he could only slice wide of the mark.
On the stroke of half time, Jim McIntyre’s men should have taken the lead, but Andrew Nelson got his effort horribly wrong when one-on-one with Mark Gillespie and missed the target completely.
The second half started with Dundee continuing where they left off, and the home support sensing a goal was coming.
But it was the travelling Fir Parker’s who got off the mark, when substitute Elliott Frear was tripped in the box, giving Willie Collum no choice but to point to the spot.
Up stepped Turnbull, who made no mistake as he sent Dundee keeper Seny Dieng the wrong way.
Dundee looked to respond through the tricky Andrew Dales and Deacon on either flank, but the latter couldn’t take advantage of two big opportunities late on, and the Steelmen held strong for all three points.